Developing and evaluating educational programs

Developing and evaluating educational programs

Rationale

Heart Failure is a chronic matter that has a important and increasing threat to the health of the citizens of the United States. Making the conditions better for care and enhancing the patient care is a growing concern that needs to be addressed as the population of the United States ages. In the year 2010, there were 5.7 million American that were suffering from heart failure (Gaziano, 2010). Heart Failure is the leading reason for the hospitalization of elderly Americans, out of every 4 heart failure patient, 1 gets readmitted within 31 days of being discharged. Despite of the fact that it causes deaths, unnecessary Heart failure readmissions costs are high and decrease the opportunity for other revenues (Hines et.al, 2010). Therefore the problem of heart failure is one of the main reasons why there is readmission to the hospitals that cause serious consequences for the hospitals. Due to the readmissions, there is also a divergence of resources towards these cases. The diversion affects the smooth operations of any hospital as the resources are limited. The aim of any effective and efficient health care system is to reduce the number of errors and increase the number of successful cases.

There are an increasing number of heart failure specialist nurses that are employed for the purpose of acting as the first contact for patients who suffer from chronic heart failure in acute and primary care surroundings (Phil, 2010). The role of the nurses is important as they improve the quality of the patient's life and reduces hospital admissions. However, there are less than half the patients that gain the advantage from being referred to a nurse as there is no awareness. There is need for the people employed in this field to be educated about their duties and responsibilities. There is a need to improve the quality of care.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is increasingly becoming the biggest priority for cardiac medical centres in the developed countries. These countries have a per-annum mortality rate of 30-40 % and high readmission rates, which is cause of poor quality of life. There is a growing need for nurses to communicate complicated medical information to the doctors and physicians regarding the patient's condition (Blue et.al, 2001). The timing and comprehensiveness of the nurse-doctor information is an integral part of improving patient care.

Goals and learner outcomes for the lesson

The number of cases regarding then hospital readmissions is a significant tool to measure the operations of a health care system. In some cases the readmissions to the hospital may be inevitable and required, but many of them can be avoided and are unnecessary. The readmissions that are not relevant are an indicator of the poor quality of health care system. Many factors may be the reasons for the irrelevant hospital readmissions, such as bad quality of patient care, discharge at the wrong time and poor coordination after the patient has been sent ...